The production paused briefly for the protest. The play is a free Public Theater performance running until Sunday. The theater tweeted the protest was "part of a paid strategy driven by social media."

“The staff removed the protesters peacefully, and the show resumed with the line ‘Liberty! Freedom!’ The audience rose to their feet to thank the actors, and we joyfully continued. Free speech for all, but let’s not stop the show," Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater and the director of the “Julius Caesar” production, said in a statement to the Times.